Webhosting Control Panels? 121
Rob Becker writes "I just started up a little webhosting company and I've noticed a lot of people have asked me if I have a Control Panel. After a little research I haven't found too many choices. The few that I come across are Plesk's Control Panel and CPanel3. I was wondering if any of the /.ers have used any of these or what they would recommend. I actually started to code my own, but unfortunatly I have another job and the time factor isn't there. It would be nice to have a premade one to take care of it for me." Now as much as tools like these can be a lifesaver in many situations, I have a hard problem with products that claim to do administration and that the users need "absolutely no Linux experience". Can these products really live up to that claim? Are there other, similar projects out there that are better than the two mentioned here?
Re:Webmin? vhost? (Score:1)
Re:CPanel (Score:1)
Re:Use Sun Cobalt RaQs... (Score:1)
Re:Never trusted control panels (Score:2)
Come on, man... just because you got shafted doesn't mean there's not decent software out there. My hosting provider uses Cpanel [cpanel.net], which has options for configuring just about anything. The UI could use a little work in some areas, but for the most part it's pretty damn good. It lets you do basic filesystem management, uploading, enabling of certain features, etc. I use the web-based tools for managing the mailing lists and mail aliases, because they're pretty slick- even though I managed to find the files that control it all myself.
The fact of the matter is, not everyone who's gonna use web hosting is going to be able to telnet to the box and administer it from there. There has to be a middle ground that provides the functionality you need without being too limiting.
Themed Cpanel example [216.74.69.227]
Apparently you license the stuff from cpanel; there's more info on their site.
Re:Pair.com has a nice one (Score:1)
DreamHost Control Panel... (Score:2)
It was _also_ a bitch to write, but we've been using it for new customers for some time now. Much better than what we were originally working with.
The panel was designed with use by others in mind (although we mostly wrote it for our own use at the time), and we have discussed licensing it out in the past but I'm not sure what the status of that is. As it is we've had a ton of resellers using it and they've been pretty happy with it.
All this running on Debian Linux w/Apache, MySQL, and written in Perl. So if that's something you're familiar with, it may be worth looking into.
If you're interested, write sales@dreamhost.com with what your plans are and what you need (feel free to ask for my name and I'll try to find out some info).
- Jeff A. Campbell
Re:use big brother. (Score:2)
BigBrother is a monitor, not a control panel. You can't modify and configure the system from within BB
That being said, you should install BigBrother as well, since it's monitoring kicks ass and is super-extensible. If you can figure out how to script a true/false program to check it, you can wrap the BB scripting around it and add it to your monitoring. I've used it at the last 3 places I've worked at.
Never trusted control panels (Score:1)
Last year we had a BUNCH of problems with our host who will for now remain nameless. Let's just say they're big and they've had several ownership changes in the past year and are now a part of a subsidiary of a large company who's name starts with M and ends with icron and who manufacture memory as well as selling full systems.
Anways durring the heat of these problems I had tech support telling me to stop modifying things by hand and ONLY use the web based interface because they had made changes to things any only their interface would be capable of making the updates properly. Well after two days of tech support hell and the problem (a fairly major one involving e-mail not getting delivered) not getting solved tech support finally said "Oh, wait you're using the web interface. Stop doing that. It dosen't work right and we know it".
I'll still use these control panels for looking up information but I'll never use them for actually changing anything.
One free solution (under development) (Score:3)
This gives you full editable-through-a-browser PHP4 dynamic pages backed up by mysql (other database support under dev.), virtual hosting, mailling list, DNS, webmail, and who knows what else will be thrown in.
I've used this for a couple intranet sites. The initial configuration is hard, but once it's running you're good for years. Migard development is very active and support via the midgard mailing list is excellent.
Nadmin is still somewhere between alpha and beta quality, but it's coming along quickly.
Re:Uh.. (Score:1)
No, he didn't. (Score:2)
He has Linux experience: he's just prejudiced against products that claim to obviate the need for it.
Anyway, he'd better have experience, or he has no place trying to set up his own webhosting company and configure a user control panel himself.
CPanel (Score:2)
I haven't used the other, so I can't comment on it. CPanel works fine though for those who don't develop and just need to tweak a few things
I think I'll write a user web hosting panel (Score:2)
I think I'll write a user web hosting panel. So tell me what you think it should have, but without referencing any existing panel or service ... i.e. just decribe it directly. But if you think there's already one out there that fits your needs exactly, then why would you reply here.
Re:Plesk's Control Panel (Score:1)
I have to agree with NooT here. I've been running Plesk for about two weeks now with around 50 domains on it, and about 1000 email accounts. After some intitial flukes (mainly due to me being too tired to see straight, after NorthPoint pulled the plug on our DSL), the box has been running like a champ.
The tech support people at Plesk are the best, they really went over the top to help us out. It is nice to find someone who will actually return your call, and know what they are talking about when they do!
Also, most of the configs are stored in MySQL on the back end, so if you absolutely __can't__ stand working with the gui, you can >probably< work with the system from the back end. Just make sure you know what you are doing. This way, the front end users can still add emails, etc. through the gui, and you can do stuff with perl::DBI if you want. Although I'm pretty sure this would void any warranty they have :)
All in all, it is a great system so far...
I am using Plesk's Control Panel (Score:1)
Re:csoft.net and csoftadm | csoft sucks (Score:1)
Their accounting system is a mess. My account expired and they claimed they've emailed me, which I know they didn't. They lied. What's stupid is that I gave them my credit card number online but the csoft morons still wouldn't get my account activated. So I emailed them, and they gave me the run-around (e.g., need to reapply for a new account). What does it take me to get them to accept my money?! I couldn't bother trying to track down a their sales department after sending a couple of emails.
So I ditched the stupid fuckers. BTW, I have clients that are now getting their accounts mixed up. Dumb csoft fucks can't even count money. They should learn accounting.
I'm in Canada, so if they keep fucking around, I'll call the consumer affairs in Quebec.
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
I agree absolutely. I supose I didn't get this across before, but we operate similarly. Everyone gets access to their CPanel3 Control Panel, and those clients who request it get access to the shell.
Take care,
Brian
http://www.assortedinternet.com [assortedinternet.com]
We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:2)
Being a long time consumer and now provider of web hosting services I've found that you just need to have shell access available.
I've never even considered hosting on a service that didn't offer shell accounts - in fact, when I started hosting my own websites there really weren't any HTML Control Panels. You had to do everything yourself. Now with Control Panels there is an option to do it through a GUI, but for a lot of things you still want/need to do through a shell. There is only so much a control panel can do, and where it falls short, there is always the command line.
Having said that though, control panels like CPanel3, Cobalt Raq's CP, Webmin, etc are great for doing a wide variety of common tasks. Adding users, subdomains, viewing logs, file management, statistics, etc. Doing it through a GUI is nice, fast and far easier for the vast majority of users. So now we use and offer CPanel3 since it generally makes life easier.
I definitely believe that having both is preferable for power users. For less experienced users, they will probably only ever use the Control Panel, but should they want to use the shell, it should be there.
Brian
http://www.assortedinternet.com [assortedinternet.com]
Re:jumpline.com (Score:1)
They're hosted by Alabanza, and the CP and all that other UI tuff that you see was developed completely in-house by Alabanza. It's also not OSS, although the platform that it runs on is.
I don't speak for my company, they have no idea I'm posting this, and if you can guess who I work for from this disclaimer, you need some help (and no, it ain't Jumpline).
Re:PHP-nuke (Score:1)
Re:Possible GPL violation (Score:2)
Re:CPanel and NetAdmin (Score:1)
I'm Vince from Site5.
I'd just like to add a few things
Site5.com are one of only 2 hosting companies in the world who have access to the Cpanel3 source code. (Our CEO is on the Cpanel3 development team). And to my knowledge, we're the only company outside of VDI.net's datacenter that can offer Cpanel3/WHM for free to our dedicated and colocated customers.
So if anyones looking for a Cpanel3 server, we can help you out.
Feel free to contact me (vince at site5.com) for more information.
Regards,
Vince.
Re:HostRocket has a nice control panel (Score:1)
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
I'm not saying shell access should *never* be granted, I'm saying shell access should be granted *after* some contact has been made with the client.
Sorry for being security concious. Oh. Wait. No. I'm not sorry.
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Re:CPanel and NetAdmin (Score:1)
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
I'd say less then 10% of our users use the shell, and not many of them use it every day, so I'd estimate around 100 ICQ pages / day / 2000 users.
Quite managable.
Plus, we can make it alternate between members of staff, and distribute the pages evenly.
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
We also state in our TOS that while a user is on the system, we can monitor their actions.
It helps to know when users are actually logged on, if you want to do any active monitoring.
It adds to the picture of system usage. When grouped with resource usage, login frequency and duration, you can figure out patterns in user behaviour, which can also be helpful when trying to track down system compromise.
I just feel it's better to be prepared then to get caught with hot grits down your pants.
Plus, sometimes people will request a shell account when their domain name is very suspect - Recently, 'allripped-fxp.com' requested a shell.
It's nice to know when they're logged in, so I can actually take a look at what they're doing, and determine if the reason they requested shell access is truthful and doesn't violate TOS.
And anyway, every little helps.
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:2)
Leaving shell access available for everyone who signs up is just begging to be screwed with by the script kiddies of the world.
I'm a system administrator at site5.com (we're on the Cpanel3 development team) and we wrote a shell wrapper that denies access to the shell unless it's specified as an option in
We're also thinking about modifying bash to make it do chroot()'ing to the users' home directory.
Blindly offering shell access to any customer that signs up, without any kind of administrator contact, is very shortsighted IMHO.
Regards,
Vince.
(vince at site5.com)
Here's how to decide... (Score:1)
Webmin? vhost? (Score:4)
http://www.chaogic.com/vhost/ [chaogic.com]
Updated today on Freshmeat. These tools are more for the administration side than the user side of course, but what do they want in a front-end? Maybe a web-based template based website creation tool? Web based email for their domain name? You are asking for an answer to a vague question...
CPanel and NetAdmin (Score:1)
Plesk *sucks* (Score:2)
The problem, though, is that if you ever want/need to edit any configurations by hand, Plesk will make your life hell. It stores configuration information in its own files, and overwrites the real files with that when you change anything. You can edit a few of those files, but IIRC, they're added to the end of the conf files. So, if you want to mess with Apache's conf, you'll be having to fight Plesk for the rest of your days with the server.
Of course, if you can live with the fairly limited options that Plesk offers, you're fine.
The other thing I didn't like about Plesk is that it moves everything around, putting all the program files, conf files, and data under /usr/local/plesk. For example, your website gets put in:
And your BIND files?
So, if you plan on never touching the conf files yourself, you can live with its limited options, and you don't mind things being moved around, you'll be okay. Otherwise, stay away.
--
Re:Plesk *sucks* (Score:2)
Maybe I'm just biased because it made trying to administer my server a hellish task, having to work around Plesk instead of just with-or-without it.
Or maybe web-based interfaces just don't like me, since Webmin wrote me some BIND conf files that were just plain wrong...gave up on that one, too. The plus side is I can now configure Apache, BIND, and qmail all by hand.
--
Re:check out FreeVSD (Score:1)
Rob Becker, didn't write that he had "absolutely no Linux experience" in his ask Slashdot question. It was Cliff who wrote that in regard to his skepticism about products claiming that users need no Linux experience.
There, are you happy? You trolled me into explaining the obvious.
Who makes Plusmail? (Score:1)
odd thread this follows... (Score:2)
i've noticed a lot of people pumping up all kinds of products; free ones, proprietary, and even a bunch of asses advertising their own hosting provider [internetconnection.net] (couldn't resist, but at least i admit i'm an ass.), but the question of whether there are similar projects out there...
webmin and similar products don't count, because if you don't know unix, you shouldn't run it, let alone administer it, LET ALONE THAT, and try and run a business using it.
web hosting is a business. no mather which way you look, and while I have found several (many of the ones listed elsewhere on this page), most tend to coerce you into using their hosting solution(tm), instead of bending to your system.
if you're serious about doing web-hosting, build a platform. take redhat, or debian, or solaris, or whatever you like/know, and build your system. use whatever components you feel comfortable with; but don't worry about a gui. make shell scripts for your timid users. writing a few dozen perl/shell scripts to help out users is a good idea(tm), and if you absolutely want a web-based interface, it's a simple matter to write some web-glue for that.
truth here: if you think you can build a successful web-hosting company _without_ spending time on it (e.g. purchasing your components), you've definately got another thing coming, and you will run into it sooner or later.
so take my advise, give the users the capacity for control first, then make your own damn pages to actually make it easy on them. any other route spells disaster for the future.
and as a closing note, i *hate* all those 3$...5$...10$ hosting providers with a unprofessional-looking website, and some shoddy NT/IIS based or Redhat+RedhatServer(blah) garbage (hacked in five flat. guaranteed), and expect to stick around. all they do is waste people's time... and if you fuck up early, you'll make it harder on yourself in the future.
I rolled my own (Score:2)
Unfortunately, it's so customized and woven into my hosting system, I don't know that I could ever pull it out into a package that other people could install and use. But it works for me.
-Todd
---
Re:Plesk (Score:1)
Re:Comanche - GUI management of Apache & Samba (Score:1)
Plesk (Score:1)
Pair.com has a nice one (Score:1)
http://www.pair.com/pair/support/mypair/
Re:use big brother. (Score:1)
I had it running at the last three companies where I was as well, but after I left nobody kept it's hand on it, and now it more or less died...
My current employer though would rather spent 250.000 on BMC than use BB... Well, it took me a day to roll out BB on all my boxes and it's working... BMC is still trying to figure out WHAT they actually have to monitor .
Re:Webmin? vhost? (Score:1)
Because the earlyer post was posted by an AC, so it started at score 0, rather than 1. Both were moderated up as informative, and thus ended up with scores 1 and 2.
Re:Webmin? vhost? (Score:2)
Pretty hard URL to remember huh? (JK =P)
Re:csoft.net and csoftadm (Score:2)
I'm a current csoft customer, and I routinely experience outages of greater than 1 hour, with no notice or explanation posted (in fact, they rarely admit to an outage unless it lasts the whole day.)
The concept is cool, and I like the amount of control that csoft offers (csoftadm rocks), but all in all, csoft sucks.
A quote from their current motd:
Nothing like telling your customers up front that complaints about their network will fall upon deaf ears.
Anyone know of anything like csoft that actually works?
-jerdenn
Re:use big brother. (Score:2)
And, the community of Brothers kick ass.
I've been on the mailing lists for a long time now, been with BB since pre 1.2, if I remember right. It really does a great job without annoying extra bloat, even if it does page me at 3 AM because Cold Fusion on NT has choked on another chicken bone. :)
Another great thing about it is the extensibility - if you can write a simple shell script, you can make a custom test. Or perl, or C, or whatever tickles your fancy. Or just download a premade contributed extension from www.deadcat.net.
Finally, the authors, Robert-Andre and Sean, are also probably the most approachable guys I've ever met on a mailing list.
But yeah - it's not really anything to do with webhosting control panels. :)
Re:Use Sun Cobalt RaQs... (Score:1)
Yep - lots cheaper. From the Cobalt website [cobalt.com]:
RaQ4 (64MB RAM/10GB HD/single Ethernet) is $1499
RaQ4i (256MB RAM/20GB HD/Dual Ethernet/SCSI Port) is $2699
RaQ4r (512MB RAM/2 30GB HD w/RAID1) is $3599
(other SKUs with different RAM/HD configs change the price as well)
These all use commodity PC-100 DIMMs, so you can do your own memory upgrade to the 512MB max pretty easily (of course your own memory isn't covered by the warranty, but...)
They are more expensive than a white-box general purpose server, but it comes back to "everything you need is pre-integrated" so you can literally have it online within 10-15 minutes of opening the box without having to be a Linux "guru". That's what the slight premium in price is all about...
Put 50 domains on a RaQ4r at $40 a month each, and it's paid for in 2 months. And that's without charging extra for bandwidth, backup services, etc, which most every ISP does anyway...
Re:CobaltRaQ (Score:2)
The BIND patch has been available since Feb 6
Command-line administration does not necessarily void your 30 days of free telephone support, and absolutely doesn't affect the hardware warranty. If you don't touch things provided in the GUI, you're ok. And some things, like Interbase, have to be set up from the command line. Third-party apps which don't overlap/replace/affect supplied services don't alter warranty support in any way (Real server, MySQL, etc).
Free support isn't provided for every possible end-user kludge-up of the Apache/Sendmail/etc config files... but does anyone provide free support for things like that anyway?
Cobalt server appliances are just that: appliances. (How many of you fiddle with your microwave to get better/different performance out of it?) If you are totally into complete customization of every detail of your server, then a general-purpose server is what you want.
Server appliances (not just 1U boxes with an OS on them!) are for people who don't want to spend the time finding/installing/configuring Apache, sendmail, FTP, etc. They just want a few basic internet services to work, and be easy to understand. Cobalt appliances are probably not the best solution for the average Slashdot propellerhead...
Re:CobaltRaQ (Score:2)
It was all chugging along nicely, so I went to get a drink. I came back and went back in (to install security patches, ironically), and I'd been H4X0R3D. 6 days after the server came up.
I caught it in time, though, and managed to salvage it. Only a web defacement, thank God. Good job, as the support at my ISP (www.tele7.net) is crap.
Webmin is nice... (Score:2)
One users experience (Score:2)
I like my cute little control panel (Score:1)
Oh.. you're talking about THAT kind of control panel. ;-)
e-smith and zope come to mind (Score:1)
I'm writing one as a Webmin module (Score:1)
It's for a new hardware product that we're developing, but it is free and GPL'ed.
Anyone with an interest in getting involved in development please email me (perl knowledge required). Apache virts work, users are created, and home directories are made, in the modules current form. The rest of the picture is adding a new Webmin user (with correct permissions), DNS, and Sendmail. Someone today recommended adding MySQL and PostgreSQL users, so it's on the todo for a later version. I haven't put up a website yet, but I'll do so immediately if other people want to get involved.
HostRocket has a nice control panel (Score:1)
Plesk is cool, and you can buy it Pre-Loaded (Score:1)
I especially dug the console for BIND, so your users can manage (and possibly mess up) their own DNS records. They have demo up on their site, I think.
If you're into serious large scale deployments, you can get Plesk pre-loaded on Crystal's [crystalpc.com] super small RIA appliance. [crystalpc.com]
NT Hosting Control Panels (Score:1)
Code your own (Score:1)
Am I missing something, Mr. Gates? (Score:1)
Either I'm ignorant, or you're what they call a reactionary.
Argh, just finishing one right this moment. (Score:1)
What interesting timing, me and a couple of other developers are just finishing a control panel/ISP management system from hell for the company we work for [inspace.net] to use, it is going live next Wednesday. I dont want to say how long we have been working on it, its almost embarassing.
The system consists of many components. Its core is a cooperatively multitasking daemon that manages all activity. Any requests for service modification (customer addition, plan addition, service configuration) come in via XML. These requests typically originate from either the end-user control panel or the reseller control panel. The daemon checks to ensure that nothing odd is going on (like a zillion requests for service modification in the last x minutes), breaks the XML down into subpackets destined for the appropriate servers. For example, one incoming hosting add request will require a packet destined for the DNS server and another packet destined for the hosting server. When translating the packets, the daemon also transactionally updates the postgres database. If all packets translate OK, the data commits. The daemon then establishes a connection to a second, forking daemon which examines the subpacket and connects to the indicated server and issues the XML to a script on that server. The nonforker also runs internal events that monitor the status of the provided services. The whole thing is a little more complex than that, but you get the idea. The system also handles all billing and accounting.
The system offers several advantages over a traditional control panel. The most obvious advantage is that the customer manages all of their domains from the same login on the same control panel, regardless of what hosting servers those domains may be spread across. The second advantage is with the central server being aware of every request, it can monitor request processing statistics, which results in enhanced security and reliability. The maintained database is substantial enough where if one of our hosting or DNS servers went down, the customer configuration could be regenerated from the information in the management system database (this was not the intent, but a byproduct).
Anyways, to answer the original question, the type of control panel solution really depends on the scale of the internet service operation.
Maru
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
It also notifies us via ICQ pager whenever anyone signs into their shell account.
===
Guess you don't have many customers?
maru
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
Quite managable.
===
I guess, but I don't see what useful purpose it serves, aside from satisfying that big brother-ish need that some sysadmins have. If the system paged when a user exceeded some sort of resource limit, then I would mark it as useful. But what good is knowing when a user logs on? Are you looking for excessive logins? What sort of problematic activity can be detected by solely tracking when users log on?
Maru
ISFree is GPL. :) (Score:1)
I've been through several ISP management software suites and found them all to be lacking in one of several critical areas. Stability, Security, Usability, or Portability.
I'm looking for some more developers to join the team to develop ISFree. I've been getting quite a bit of attention from the release on FreshMeat.net.
If you like what we are doing with it please feel free to join the mailing lists(isfree-dev@lists.terrabox.com) [mailto] or check us out on Openprojects.net IRC network in #isfree.
Ensim (Score:1)
Control Panel - another Web Host's Perspective (Score:3)
Some things you can find on the web and integrate or make your own, but most of these solutions at least require some cosmetic alterations and minimal configurations.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
Domain Names for $13
Absolutely! If you don't use Linux! (Score:1)
Seriously. If you want a no-brainer solution, just use (gasp) Microsoft products. They have spent billions making sure that your mom can do this kind of stuff! Lets focus on using the right tool for the job, instead of smushing one product into every conceivable nitch.
Not a troll or a flame, just pointing out the obvious. Otherwise I'd be an AC.
Re:Great CP (Score:1)
MonsterControls (Score:1)
web control panels GOOD (usually) (Score:1)
As long as a webhoster gives me the option of not using the "control panel" then I prefer to use one. (Oh the paradox!)
If you're running a site on your webhoster's machine (i.e., not leasing a rackmount or something), then why be afraid of the pretty interface? Besides which I can maintain my sites while I'm at work (when it's slow, of course).
Re:use big brother. (Score:2)
Re:CobaltRaQ (Score:1)
WebShowHost (Score:1)
The system is built using PHP 4.0 for the front-end, several MySQL Databases and several PERL based daemons that do the actual system level work. The Control panel handles an intitial customer bill, then lets our home-grown accounting package track the billing from then on.
WebSHowHost is very open-source friendly, and I have already had discussions about releasing our package as GPL with the partners who thus far have been very open to the idea.
I like building this application to building my dream house. I have tried to put in all the "extras" to make it well suited for me, and other developers like me.
I hope to have a demo on-line within the next week or so. Visually it is pretty spartan now, and the navigation isn't as intuitive as I'd like. So in other words it needs some polish. I also need to make it a bit more generalized, so it more flexible in other situations.
The neat thing about the aritecture is the "auto-form" code I worte to provide an abstract method of generating HTML forms for mySQL databases. Each form is defined by a n assoiciative array so visible fields can be turned on and off ddepending on the situation. Updating and Insert is as easy as passing the array to a specific function, so adding field to the database the html form automatically reflects the change, making the tool very easy to customize, because you don't have to change a lot of static forms or modify any sql statements to add fields. I have been meaning to release the auto form code for a while (since I orginally developed it for another independent project, but have been to usy to get to it.) Anyway please feel free to drop me a line if your interested in talking about this.
-Brandon (MS2K)
Re:WebShowHost (Score:1)
Also, my correct e-mail is bphillips@webshowhost.com [mailto]
I guess I be a little more patient next timewith waiting for the preview to finish loading.
-- REPOST FOLLOWS: ---
I work for WebshowHost.com, I am basically the chief architect for our web-based control panel system. In other words I have pretty much wrote a control panel from scratch. It is not done yet, which is why you won't see to much mention of it on our site. I have jsut got farenough to start beta testing it with some local developers, however if anyone is interested in checking it out and offering suggestions please drop me a line at
bphillips@webshowhost.com
The system is built using PHP 4.0 for the front-end, several MySQL Databases and several PERL based daemons that do the actual system level work. The Control panel handles an intitial customer bill, then lets our home-grown accounting package track the billing from then on.
WebSHowHost is very open-source friendly, and I have already had discussions about releasing our package as GPL with the partners who thus far have been very open to the idea.
I like building this application to building my dream house. I have tried to put in all the "extras" to make it well suited for me, and other developers like me.
I hope to have a demo on-line within the next week or so. Visually it is pretty spartan now, and the navigation isn't as intuitive as I'd like. So in other words it needs some polish. I also need to make it a bit more generalized, so it more flexible in other situations.
The neat thing about the aritecture is the "auto-form" code I worte to provide an abstract method of generating HTML forms for mySQL databases. Each form is defined by a n assoiciative array so visible fields can be turned on and off ddepending on the situation. Updating and Insert is as easy as passing the array to a specific function, so adding field to the database the html form automatically reflects the change, making the tool very easy to customize, because you don't have to change a lot of static forms or modify any sql statements to add fields. I have been meaning to release the auto form code for a while (since I orginally developed it for another independent project, but have been to usy to get to it.) Anyway please feel free to drop me a line if your interested in talking about this.
-Brandon (MS2K)
Check out Wirex's ISP software (Score:1)
I work for Wirex [wirex.com]. Check out our Immunix ISP Appliance Server Software [wirex.com]. We think our interface is very easy to use; we built in some mini-expert systems in the form of "wizards" (yes, like them :-) so that the web interface is more intelligent than just filling in fields that would otherwise be the content of conf files.
The appliance software is integrated with Immunix [immunix.org] which is a security hardened Linux distribution. Security hardening is important in a web-managed appliance, precisely because the web interface (and the users that accompany them :-) don't have the smarts to address security issues in a timely fashion.
Plesk = no good (Score:1)
Dont get me wrong, plesk is a fairly decent tool, but its not even close to being a replacement for a few well designed perl scripts run by the admin himself.
Plesk makes -extremely- dirty config files, nearly unreadable except to itself.
Just keep that in mind when you use it, dont expect to go through you config files later after Plesk gets done with them.
Systems Administrator
Servu Networks
http://www.servuhome.net
CLI all the way (Score:1)
Making administration easier by hiding the "gory details" of what's actually going on has a tendency to reduce the knowledge needed to properly administer a system to nearly nothing. What you end up with is people who setup a system and then call themselves SA's or something of that ilk, when in reality all they know how to do is fill in a few fields and click some icons.
This is probably the single most irritating trait of most NT/2k administrators (and increasingly, linux/unix admins) - they know what to do with their admin tools, but the majority have no clue as to what their actions are doing.
I'm a CLI jockey - i like to know what is happening and why, so if something breaks i can have some idea as to what is going. i like to know the capabilities of my tools, so if i need to do a non-standard config, i know how to do it. only after i have a solid understanding of what a particular tool does do I look for a quick and easy, point and click interface to it - but i always check the end result at the command line.
Re:CLI all the way (Score:1)
ISPMAN (Score:1)
ISPMan ROCKS! Requires Apache (of course) OpenLDAP, Cyrus IMAP, Postfix, and ProFTPd. (All/most of which are best of breed.) Handles centralized web-based authentication of FTP, IMAP, and SMTP users via LDAP without need for /etc/passwd. Also a separate web-based control panel for users, and a customized version of IMP for webmail based users.
www.ispman.org [ispman.org]
Atif (the author) is very clever, very responsive, and ispman works very well and has been tested on Linux and FreeBSD.
another one (Score:2)
Re:Possible GPL violation (Score:1)
I'm going to code my (Score:2)
BTW, while I'm planning on making the affiliate program availible for a small charge (about $30 or $40), I think I'll be using the GPL for the control panel program once I get aroudn to writing it.
Now, a shameless plug: my hosting company is Synergy Global Networks [synergyglo...tworks.com]. They specialize in a no-TOS hosting plan, which would take a court order to remove your site.
There, I'm done whoring myself.
I have a couple of others (Score:1)
Of course you could go with the server/web admin that Xitami [xitami.com] offers. My 2 bits.
I pick .. (Score:1)
Mirror (Score:1)
csoft.net and csoftadm (Score:1)
Try 911 (Score:1)
Not exactlya control panel but EXCELLENT (IMHO) (Score:1)
It must be one of the easiest distributions to set up and administer; although if you know what you're doing you'll be a bit frustrated with always having to use the GUI.
I set a couple boxes up for total beginners, and I mean real beginners, not IIS/Windows refugees. The people I set them up for have hardly ever called me with questions. (Setting up FrontPage extensions is a PAIN though, so if one needs that c)
Re:Tierranet... (Score:1)
check out FreeVSD (Score:1)
lots of power to the user, the best I've seen yet.
Of course, 'no previous Linux experience' doesn't really come into it so it might not be for your client - but for cheap virtual hosting for geeks its unbeatable.
for an ISP that uses it, check out www.dsvr.co.uk (very good, fast, reliable).
excellent stuff!
Re:check out FreeVSD (Score:2)
Re:I'm going to code my (Score:1)
>court order to remove your site.
Since it's a little late for an April Fool's joke, I'll bite...
When you say no-TOS, do you mean there's no terms of service / usage agreement? The client just agrees to pay the bill, with no restrictions on content? Part of me loves the idea and wants to find out more, the other part of me thinks you're opening yourself up to a shitload of legal problems (not to mention being RBL'd the day you open for business). In any case, I'd appreciate some clarification - visited the site to get more info, but it's still in the works, I see
Shaun
Re:Comanche - GUI management of Apache & Samba (Score:1)
Great CP (Score:2)
It is the only Virtual Hosting control panel on the market designed strictly for the Novice Web Hoster.
Check it out.
Re:CobaltRaQ (Score:2)
The BIND patch has been available since Feb 6
Yes, a patch - if you sign up for dedicated hosting from most places, you'll probably start with a fresh install and an unpatched BIND. Since most people going for RaQs don't know much about being a sysadmin, they will be h@x0r3d within days. (I get on average 6 or 7 attempts a day against the 'known insecure' services, aka sunrpc, lpd, BIND every day from skript kiddies).
A large chunk of the traffic on the Cobalt Users mailing list is "Help! I've been hacked" from RaQ3/RaQ4 users. Not really Cobalt's fault - they weren't to know when they shipped the software - but if you're getting a RaQ it's something you need to know so you can fix it before the kiddies get in. Since BIND can run happily as a non-root user, I'm surprised that Cobalt's (and RedHat's for that matter) distro doesn't run it as a non-root user. My motto is "if it can be run as non-root, then it's going to be run as non-root". Any good distro should avoid running stuff as root that doesn't have to be run as root.
Cobalt server appliances are just that: appliances. (How many of you fiddle with your microwave to get better/different performance out of it?) If you are totally into complete customization of every detail of your server, then a general-purpose server is what you want.
I agree - but the only reasonably priced dedicated hosting tends to be CobaltRaQs, so a lot of people who don't need just an appliance get them. They can be customized and improved. In fact, if you have a RaQ2, you need to do some of that if you want to be able to run things like MySQL (the shipped glibc is broken).
CobaltRaQ (Score:4)
Re:We use CPanel3, and shell accounts (Score:1)
Re:MonsterControls (Score:1)
If you don't know already, most hosting companies suck and/or are in debt.
Re:Control Panel - another Web Host's Perspective (Score:1)
why would we give away our proprietary control panel after spending countless of dollars and man hours working on it.
There is something wrong.
Plesk's Control Panel (Score:2)
Comanche - GUI management of Apache & Samba (Score:3)